If you need to confirm that an Australian company exists, who its officeholders are, or what has been lodged against it, the primary record is the register maintained by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). This guide explains the two different things you can order from ASIC — a company extract and a copy of a lodged document — what each one actually contains, and the sequence to follow when you order.
The distinction matters. An extract is a snapshot of register data as ASIC holds it. A document copy is the image of a form or attachment a company (or someone acting for it) lodged. Due diligence usually needs both: the extract tells you what should be there, and the documents tell you what was actually filed.
What ASIC's registers hold
ASIC maintains registers of Australian companies and several other types of organisations, according to ASIC's company and organisation registers page. Those registers are built from documents lodged with ASIC over the life of the entity. They are not a credit file, not a tax record and not a court record — they show registered details and lodgement history.
Two consequences follow. First, currency depends on lodgement. If a company has not lodged a change, the register will not show it. Second, the register is a public record, so most of what you order is information the company itself supplied, not something ASIC has independently verified.
What a company extract contains
A company extract is the standard summary ASIC provides for a registered entity. Per ASIC, it includes:
- the entity's identifying details, including its name and registration status
- the suburb, state and postcode of the registered office address
- a list of documents lodged with ASIC for that entity
- officeholder details, subject to the limitation below
That document list is the part people underestimate. It lets you see the lodgement pattern — whether annual returns and change notifications appear to be up to date, and what corporate activity has occurred.
What an extract does not give you
ASIC states plainly that officeholder addresses are not available in this ASIC extract. If your purpose is to locate or serve a director, an extract alone will not give you a residential address, and you should not assume one is obtainable from the register. Treat that as a boundary, not an oversight you can work around with another search.
Similarly, the registered office detail provided is at suburb, state and postcode level. Do not expect full street-level detail from the extract. And an extract is a point-in-time record: it reflects the register when you ordered it, so note the order date on whatever you save.
Copies of lodged documents
ASIC advises that you can buy copies of publicly available documents that have been lodged with ASIC in relation to the company or organisation. This is a separate transaction from ordering an extract, and it is the route to the underlying paperwork — the forms and attachments behind the entries you see in the extract.
Practically, this is where you verify rather than infer. If the extract shows a change of officeholder or a share structure change, the supporting document is what confirms the detail. Documents lodged with ASIC are publicly available by default, but not every attachment ends up in the public set, so check what ASIC offers for that specific document before assuming a file exists.
How to order
- Go to ASIC's Search ASIC Registers service.
- Choose what you are searching within. ASIC's guidance is specific here: to find documents, select 'Search within: Documents' rather than 'Organisation & Business Names'. Choosing the wrong scope is the most common reason people conclude a document "isn't available".
- Search for the company or organisation by name or identifier and select the correct entity. Similar names are common — confirm the registration details, not just the name.
- Select the item you want: a company extract, or a copy of a specific document.
- Pay the applicable fee. ASIC's site sets out current fees and delivery options for each item; check these at the time you order rather than relying on any figure quoted elsewhere.
- Save the PDF with the date you retrieved it, so the snapshot is attributable later.
If you are lodging documents rather than ordering them, that is a different task. ASIC directs users to lodge regulatory documents and transactions in the ASIC Regulatory Portal.
Choosing between an extract and document copies
| What you are trying to do | Order |
|---|---|
| Confirm the company is registered and check its status | Company extract |
| See the registered office location (suburb, state, postcode) | Company extract |
| Review lodgement history and whether filings look current | Company extract (document list) |
| Verify a specific event, form or attachment | Copy of the lodged document |
| Build a due diligence file for a counterparty | Both, saved and dated together |
| Keep a record of your own company's register data | Company extract, re-ordered after lodgements |
Note what is absent from that table: residential officeholder addresses, creditworthiness, and anything ASIC has not been asked to record.
Checks before you rely on what you ordered
- Confirm you selected the right entity, not a similarly named one.
- Note the date of retrieval; an extract is a snapshot, not a live feed.
- Cross-check the document list against what you would expect to have been lodged for a company of that age and activity.
- Do not treat an extract as evidence of trading activity, solvency or compliance beyond the register itself.
- Where a document copy exists, read the lodged form rather than relying on the summary entry.
- If you need officeholder addresses, plan a different, lawful route — ASIC says these are not in the extract.
Next steps
Start with a company extract for the entity you care about, then order document copies for anything the extract's lodgement list flags as significant. Keep both in a single folder with the retrieval date in the filename so the snapshot is defensible later. If you are doing this for your own company, repeat the extract after you lodge changes, so your internal records match the register.
Current fees, delivery methods, the exact fields in an extract, and the scope of what is publicly available are set by ASIC and can change. Verify them on ASIC's registers pages at the time you order, and confirm with a registered agent, accountant or lawyer if the documents inform a transaction, dispute or compliance decision.
If the reason you are pulling company records is that you are organising finance for a business, you can compare options through our matching tool.
General information only. This article is general information about ASIC's registers and is not legal, tax, migration, credit or financial advice, and it is not a recommendation of any provider or product. We are not ASIC, a government body, a regulator, a lender or a broker. Figures, fees, availability and register fields change — confirm details with ASIC directly before acting.